Howto setup an infrared-connection with Belkin F5U235 and Linux

On this page you will a find a short guide on how to set up this USB infrared
adapter with Linux.
Please note: the page was written in 2005, so many things I had to do the hard
way back then can now be skipped or will work automatically (e.g. the driver is included in the vanilla kernel now, so Step 1 can be skipped altogether).

Setting up the Infrared USB Dongle

I assume you have the USB-subsystem up and running.

Step 1: Kernel-Config

The Belkin F5U235 works with a vanilla-kernel at least since kernel 2.6.12
(what I am using right now).

You need the stir4200.c module, ver. 0.4 works for the SigmaTel
STIr4200 chip.
If you are using an older version of the kernel where the module is not
included you can download a patch from
http://developer.osdl.org/shemminger/stir4200/.

Compile (recommended: as a module)irda.koirda-usb.kostir4200.ko

The necessary Parameters in the kernel-.config-file are
CONFIG_IRDA=m
CONFIG_USB_IRDA=m
CONFIG_SIGMATEL_FIR=m

Step 3: Configure USB-Subsystem

The loading of the module works out-of-the-box.
You only have to bring the interface upifconfig irda0 up
and start detection of other infra-red devicesecho -n "1" > /proc/sys/net/irda/discovery

JFTR:
In former versions of irda-utils for this purpose the program irattach had to
be used.

Step 4: Infrared Setup

You have to enter the appropriate parameters when installing the irda-utils
package.
This is the contents of the file /etc/default/irda-utils (this is
Debian, the location of such a config-file depends on your
distribution).

Now you can connect to another device via infrared and the device
/dev/ircomm0. Fire up any terminal program like
minicom to test and play.

SieFS doesn't work with this IR-adapter (altough it does on the same machine
with my serial IR adapter). I can mount the phone but it cannot display any
directory contents (after some time I get an Input/output error). Obexftp
works.

I cannot tell if FIR-mode works, too, since I don't have a FIR-device to test
it. If you can try FIR please send me an e-mail whether it works.